jgruber

I think it's more than just socio-economic circumstances leading minorities to crime.

There is the fact that blacks and other minorities are more likely to be charged. That some crimes that are more likely to be commited by minorities carry more severe sentences than morally and legally equivalent crimes more likely to be committed by whites. (Example: Use of one form of cocaine carries more severe sentences than use of another form of cocaine.)

It's definitely both. And that definitely won't change until we start treating blacks equally and giving them the same advantages/quality of education/etc we give whites. We all know there are double-standards in our society that we'd prefer not to talk about... less so than ever before, but they're still there. So its a vicious cycle... but more blacks will keep committing more crimes until we give them the opportunity to make more money and have more prestige and get out of the slums. Once they feel like fully-accepted citizens with futures outside of drugs and gangs they'll stop committing the majority of the crimes; it's that simple.

i wrote my senior thesis in college dealt with this subject. my main points involved the way that the majority group will take behaviors associated with a minority group and label them deviant, then outlaw them (the theoretical framework is straight out of durkheim). look at prohibition - this was aimed primarily at urban catholics who were moving to the country in large numbers. narcotics/drugs were the same story - the chinese with opium, blacks/mexicans with marijuana and blacks with crack cocaine. in the first three decades of the 20th century, american society changed rapidly for the first time. in 1900, it was primarily a rural protestant country with no electricity. by 1940, it was a multicultural country with most of the population in urban centers with electricity in the homes. the protestant elite would take behaviors associated with minority groups and outlaw them as a way to ensure that the the elites stayed the elite. we're still left with vestiges of these efforts today, and it infects our criminal justice system.

it's also important to differentiate between committing crimes, being arrested for crimes, and being prosecuted/jailed for crimes. there's little to no evidence that blacks commit more crimes, but they are arrested and prosecuted/jailed at much higher levels than whites. drug use is the same between almost all ethnic groups, but most drug arrests are of blacks and and even higher rate of incarceration will be for blacks, since the whites arrested are usually let off with diversion programs.